


Into Your Skin

by Feneris



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Community: snkkink, Gen, Scarring, tradition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 11:23:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feneris/pseuds/Feneris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Jeager family has a long an ancient tradition. If someone is important to you, scar their name into your skin so that you will never forget how important they are to you.</p><p>It's a tradition Eren has embraced fully.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into Your Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Yup, another SnK Kink meme fill. This one was basically as the summery says, the Jeager's scar the names of those important to them into their skin. Of course being the kind of person who can't stop thinking about things, I started to wonder how Eren's regeneration would affect his scars, and how conversely it would affect him. Thus this fic was born.

Eren is five when he first starts to notice the scars on the left side of his father's chest. They're thin and white, and Eren knows they spell something, even if he hasn't yet learned to read what.

When he asks his father, his dad smiles and takes off his shirt.

"Son," he explains. "We have a little tradition in our family. When someone is important to us, we take a knife and cut their name into our skin so it leaves a mark. That way we always remember who's important to us. See here." He underlined the top word, older and pale. "That's your mother's name. I did that the day we got married. And here." He underlined the second. "This is your name. I did it the day you were born and your mother and me had agreed on a name."

Eren gazed at the marks in silent awe, his fingers tracing the letters carved into his father's chest.

\---

When Eren is six, he asks his mother how to spell the words "Mom" and "Dad." Carla Jeager, not thinking too much about it, writes them down on a piece of paper, which she gives to Eren.

It's a few hours later, when she thinks she hears sobbing coming from Eren's bedroom. She opens the door to find Eren sitting on his bed, a knife in his hand, tears streaming down his face, and blood running down his chest.

He still has the words "Mom" and "Dad" engraved into his right breast in upside down, childish letters. (He had gotten his left and right side mixed up again.)

\---  
His eleventh year finds him sitting in a hidden alleyway with Armin and Mikasa. They all have their shirts off, and a pile of bandages and other medical supplies sitting nearby.

Eren bites into a piece of wood and he carefully inscribes the words "Mikasa" and "Armin" over his heart. When he's done, he hands the knife to Armin, who washes it carefully, disinfects it with bleach, and then bites into his own piece of wood.

He barely makes it through, and is sobbing with pain by the time he's done. But he nonetheless cuts "Eren" and "Mikasa" into the skin of his chest.

Mikasa in turn doesn't even flinch as she carefully cuts the word "Eren" exactly above her heart, and the word "Armin" right beside it.

\---

Eren's fifteen and barely settled into his new place in the Scouting Legion HQ, when he takes out his belt knife and begins to carve the words "Mina Caroline," into the skin of his right forearm. That is then followed by the words "Thomas Wagner."

He's halfway through the words "Marco Bodt" when he notices the steam rising from his forearm, and watches the words he has carved into his skin disappear as if they were never there.

\---

He's in the middle of a experiment with Hanji, when she remarks on the scars he has on his chest.

"A family tradition," he explains. "We carve the names of those that are important to us into our skin." He points to the two upside down words. "Did those when I was six. Didn't even realize I was doing it the wrong way." He points to the two much neater words over his heart. "Did those when I was eleven. Armin and Mikasa did the same thing as well."

"Have you added any more?" Hanji asks curiously.

He winces at the memory. "Tried to, but they just healed as fast as I wrote them. Didn't scar."

"You said your dad gave you that injection when you were ten right?" Hanji asks suddenly.

"Yes... I think," Eren answers, kinda confused as to where the question had come from.

"I wonder why those didn't heal then?" Hanji remarks, pointing to the words "Armin" and "Mikasa." "Oh well, something to test at a later time!"

Eren stares down at the names of his two best friends. _"Why didn't they heal?"_

The question would bother him for a long time.


End file.
